Cathie Wood, the CEO of ARK Invest, believes that investors are starting to move from gold to Bitcoin (BTC) following the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In a recent chat with chief futurist Brett Winton on ARK Invest’s YouTube channel, Wood stated, “Relative to gold, Bitcoin has been rising. There’s now a substitution into Bitcoin and we think that is going to continue now that there is a less friction-filled way to access Bitcoin.”
Wood drew parallels between Bitcoin and gold, suggesting that both assets could serve as “risk-off assets” during periods of banking sector weakness. She pointed to the March 2023 “regional bank crisis” in the United States, during which Bitcoin’s price surged 40% while the Regional Bank index imploded.
A recent analysis by Fidelity showed that Bitcoin’s correlation with gold increased in 2023, decoupling from its previously inverse relationship with interest rates despite global rate hikes. The one-year rolling correlation between Bitcoin and gold currently sits at 0.80, the highest it has ever been.
ARK Invest was one of 10 ETF issuers that launched a spot Bitcoin ETF on January 11, named the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. The ETF currently holds over $700 million in Bitcoin, making it one of the largest Bitcoin ETFs in the market.